The New Fire

Nuclear power has been vilified in popular culture and among much of the environmental community. Yet the next-generation reactors currently in development may actually be key to avoiding global catastrophe. The young entrepreneurs heading this energy revolution realize they’re up against more than the climate clock – they need to convince all of us that the new nuclear is safe and achievable. In THE NEW FIRE, Emmy-winning director David Schumacher takes us inside two nuclear startup companies: Transatomic and Oklo. Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie founded Transatomic while students at MIT. Their goal: to design an advanced reactor that is safer, cleaner and cheaper than today’s reactors. In Silicon Valley, Oklo founders Caroline Cochran and Jacob DeWitte are developing a micro reactor for off-grid and other special applications where, today, diesel is the only option. These teams are being supported by nuclear advocates all over the globe. THE NEW FIRE follows activist Eric Meyer at the COP 21 Paris Climate Conference as he uses his own special talents to educate Parisians. Also in Paris, renowned climate scientist James Hansen makes the case for nuclear with a team of his colleagues. Hansen travels on to China, where he’s organized an unprecedented and controversial meeting between U.S. and Chinese climate and nuclear experts. Back in the US, Bill Gates is putting his entrepreneurial and philanthropic muscle behind TerraPower, a company he cofounded to bring affordable clean energy to developing countries. Filmed across four continents over the course of twenty two months, Schumacher’s film focuses on how the generation facing the most severe impact of climate change is fighting back with ingenuity and hope. THE NEW FIRE tells a provocative and startlingly positive story about a planet in crisis and the young heroes who are trying to save it.